BOW VALLEY – Banff-Kananaskis MLA and Alberta's parks and forestry minister continue to square off over wildlife management in the province, including the move to more than double quotas for hunting and trapping female cougars.
MLA Sarah Elmeligi, who is a wildlife biologist, unsuccessfully put forward several amendments to Alberta’s Wildlife Amendment Act last week, calling for a cap on the number of tags for several animals, including cougars, wolverine and lynx among many more.
She said these decisions must be made on the best available scientific data and analysis regarding population dynamics, habitat capacity and conservation status, as well as consultation with independent wildlife biologists and other stakeholders.
Elmeligi said her amendment aims to do two things – make sure the data, including mortality numbers, quotas and science – is publicly available and guarantees the application of science in determining the number of trapping and hunting quotas and tags.
“We need science to inform wildlife management and hunting quotas and trapping quotas,” said Elmeligi when she initially introduced the proposed amendments on April 30. Debate on Bill 41 continued on May 5 and 7.
“When we use science, we can promote and adhere to the highest standards. It allows us to have confidence in our decisions and the potential impacts of those decisions.”
Wildlife decisions cause ‘irreversible harm’
Over the past year, Alberta Parks Minister Todd Loewen has authorized hunting of so-called problem grizzly bears by members of the public chosen from a pool of individuals with hunting licences under the wildlife responder program, and has also lifted trapping limits on wolverine, river otter, Canada lynx and fisher.
Loewen also expanded the minister’s licence to include white-tailed deer, mountain goat, cougar and bison, and allows year-round hunting for these licences. The minister’s special licences raise $1.2 million a year.
In addition, Loewen has also more than doubled female cougar quotas, expanded cougar hunting areas, including now allowing hunting at Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, and given the green light for the use of off-leash dogs to hunt cougars in Alberta provincial parks.
Elmeligi said the province has a cougar management plan, which counteracts these decisions, with the plan estimating a population of 1,559 cougars.
“The minimum viable population is 1,500 cougars, so clearly increasing hunting quotas is not going to help address the objectives in the management plan,” she said.
“The minister has said that we have over 2,000 cougars in the province, but there’s no data to back this up, and if there is, it’s not publicly available, so that’s why we need to have this data be publicly available.”
Last week, the Alberta Wilderness Association (AWA) and Exposed Wildlife Conservancy called on Loewen to rescind his wildlife management decisions of the last year, saying they jeopardize grizzly bears, cougars, wolverines and a host of other cherished Alberta wildlife species.
In a letter sent to the minister on May 5, the conservation groups say these decisions depart from science-based wildlife management, lack public consultation and transparency, and are heavily biased toward a small group of Albertans – hunters and trappers.
AWA and Exposed Wildlife Conservancy say Loewen’s decisions threaten the sustainability of the province’s wildlife and ecosystems and could cause “irreversible harm.”
“He has repeatedly acted in favour of his own self interests and ignored the province’s wildlife management plans by raising quotas, removing trapping limits, opening up new hunting areas, and increasing the ways in which wildlife can be hunted, all without any scientific evidence to support these changes,” said John Marriott, co-founder of Exposed.
The conservation groups say these decisions contradict sustainable management principles, Alberta’s species-specific management plans and status reports, peer-reviewed science, and the advice of biologists.
For example, cougar populations are estimated to be stable, but close to a minimum viable population number in the latest update to the provincial cougar management plan.
“This would indicate a population unable to withstand additional hunting pressure,” wrote AWA and Exposed in the letter to Loewen.
“The same logic applies to Alberta’s at-risk mountain goats and at-risk wolverines. These populations do not appear able to withstand increasing hunting or trapping pressures according to current science.”
Loewen defends decisions
During debate on May 5, Loewen defended his wildlife management decisions.
He said the number of cougar management areas were expanded to better track and manage populations, and even with those changes, the quotas are still lower than what the previous government allowed.
Under the NDP, he said there was a quota for 167 cougars – 95 males and 72 females – in 2018-2019, with quotas as high as 18 cougars in one area. In the two years prior to that, quotas were 155 cougars each year – 86 males and 69 females.
“Compare that to today, under our government, the total is 132 across nearly twice the area as when the NDP were in power,” Loewen said.
Elmeligi said the minister correctly pointed out there were more cougar tags under the NDP than now, but the best available science changes over time.
“That was six years ago. I think we’ve learned a little bit more since then,” she said.
“The minister has suggested that lifting trapping quotas is good for data collection. Utter nonsense. An animal in a trap doesn’t tell you how many animals are out there; it just tells you how many animals you’ve trapped. Give me a break.”
In response to Elmeligi’s proposed amendment on science, Loewen said the government is already making decisions based on best available scientific data and consulting with biologists and other stakeholders.
“We are already doing this…” he said. “Every year, we base tag numbers on the best available science, including population size, habitat conditions, and natural mortality. We consult biologists. We talk to First Nations. We talk to stakeholders and local experts before setting quota.”
Loewen said much of the data used to make wildlife management decisions is easily accessible on Open Alberta or through published studies, but Elmeligi disputed that all the data is already published.
“Well, I beg to differ because over the last year I’ve heard the minister shout out random numbers about the number of grizzly bears there are in Alberta, and none of those numbers match the actual recovery plan, which is the most recent data that we have on population estimates of bears,” she said.
“The minister has also said that we have over 2,000 cougars in the province, but there’s no data to back this up, and if there is, it’s not publicly available, so that’s why we need to have this data be publicly available.
“Several of the decisions the minister has made in the last year go against existing government species management plans, like for cougars, like for furbearers, like for grizzly bear recovery plan.”
Elmeligi said the most recent research for wolverines from 2024 estimated that there are 955 wolverines in Alberta, including 544 adults.
She said the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) sets standards for what classifies as a threatened or an endangered species, and for threatened species the standard is 1,000 adult individuals.
The process in Alberta dictates that with this information, the Endangered Species Conservation Committee should come together to review that most recent research and decide if wolverines need to be listed as threatened in Alberta, she said.
“Rather than follow that due process and follow that science, the minister lifted trapping limits on wolverines altogether,” said Elmeligi.
Looking at fishers and otters, which also had their trapping limits removed entirely, Elmeligi said both fishers and otters are highly sensitive to trapping, noting they were both almost extirpated in parts of Alberta due to over-harvest.
She said fishers were reintroduced to parts of Alberta in the 1990s, and otter reintroduction started in the 1980s and continued for over a decade.
“We have no current population estimates for fishers and otters, but we do know that they are very sensitive to trapping and hunting pressure,” she said.
“Here is another example where the minister has lifted the trapping limits without that decision being defensible with data. We don’t have the data. We need to first understand what the population estimates are for these species before we can go ahead and lift the trapping limits.
“Data from dead otters or dead wolverines or dead fishers does not provide population estimates. That is not a methodology that exists to estimate populations.”
Conflict of interest
AWA and Exposed continue to charge that Loewen has a conflict of interest in making wildlife decisions because of his family’s trapping and hunting business.
He formerly owned Red Willow Outfitters, an outfitting company. The company is currently owned by his wife and son. The minister and his family formerly owned and currently own traplines.
Specifically, the conservation groups say his conflicts of interest include choosing to reduce predators with the understanding that this decision will improve ungulate populations, which are targeted by his family’s outfitting business; increasing trapping quotas while his sons own traplines; and adding several species for the minister’s special licence that his family’s business targets. Non-resident hunters must use the services of an outfitting company.
“Clearly, the minister maintains strong ties to the hunting and trapping community, which has benefited from his decisions,” the groups write.
“The favouritism he has shown to hunters, trappers and outfitters to the detriment of Alberta’s public resources, especially wildlife, is at odds with his role as Minister of Forestry and Parks.”
Elmeligi said she receives questions and emails about conflict of interest.
“Some people are so upset about this minister’s approach to wildlife management that they don’t even think he should be Minister of Forestry and Parks anymore,” she said.
Loewen said the Ethics Commissioner has allowed him to make decisions on wildlife management, saying these accusations are no more than a “smear campaign.”
“The Ethics Commissioner has allowed me to make the decisions I’m making specifically. We have a letter stating that,” he said.
Yet, he said the NDP keeps bringing this issue up.
In response, Elmeligi said this is coming from her constituents who are concerned about Loewen’s direct ties to the hunting and trapping community and how decisions he makes directly benefit the hunting and trapping community.
“It’s my job to represent them in this House, and I feel like I have done that,” she said.
